Indian Politics News

Narendara Modi Biography

Narendara Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party

Basic Info

About,Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Born on 17 September 1950),is an Indian politician who is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since May 2014. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, and is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi. Modi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is a Hindu nationalist and member of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Education & Background

Narendra Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat). He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and Hiraben Modi.

Narendra Modi's family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community,which is categorised as an Other Backward Class by the Indian government.

As a child, Modi helped his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station, and later ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.Modi completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where a teacher described him as an average student and a keen debater, with an interest in theatre.

Narendra Modi had an early gift for rhetoric in debates, and this was noted by his teachers and students.Modi preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.

When eight years old, Modi discovered the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There, Modi met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who inducted him as a balswayamsevak (junior cadet) for RSS and became his political mentor.

While Modi was training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who were founding members of the BJP's Gujarat unit in 1980.

Engaged while still a child to Jashodaben Narendra Modi, a girl from a family who lived close by, Modi rejected the arranged marriage at the same time he graduated from high school.The resulting familial tensions contributed to his decision to leave home in 1967.

Modi spent the ensuing two years travelling across Northern and North-eastern India, though few details of where he went have emerged.In interviews, Modi has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, followed by the Advaita Ashrama in Almora and the Ramakrishna Mission in Rajkot.

Modi remained only a short time at each, since he lacked the required college education.Vivekananda has been described as a large influence in Modi's life.

In the early summer of 1968, Modi reached the Belur Math but was turned away, after which Modi wandered through Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping in Siliguri and Guwahati.Modi then went to the Ramakrishna Ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before travelling back to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968–69.Sometime in late 1969 or early 1970, Modi returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad.

There, Modi lived with his uncle, working in the latter's canteen at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.

In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at the Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city. After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he stopped working for his uncle and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS,working under Inamdar.

Shortly before the war, Narendra Modi took part in a non-violent protest against the Indian government in New Delhi, for which he was arrested; this has been cited as a reason for Inamdar electing to mentor him.

Many years later Modi would co-author a biography of Inamdar, published in 2001.In 1978 Modi received a degree in political science after a distance-education course from Delhi University.Five years later, in 1982, he received a Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University.

Personal Life

In accordance with Ghanchi tradition, Modi's marriage was arranged by his parents when he was a child. He was engaged at age 13 to Jashodaben, marrying her when he was 18. They spent little time together and grew apart when Modi began two years of travel, including visits to Hindu ashrams.

Reportedly, their marriage was never consummated, and he kept it a secret because otherwise he could not have become a 'pracharak' in the puritan Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.Although Modi kept his marriage secret for most of his career, he acknowledged his wife when he filed his nomination for a parliamentary seat in the 2014 general elections.

Modi maintains a close relationship with his mother, Hiraben and often visits her on his birthday to seek her blessings.

A vegetarian, Modi has a frugal lifestyle and is a workaholic and introvert.Adept at using social media, he has been since September 2014 the second-most-followed leader in the world (with over 25.8 million followers on Twitter as of December 2016), behind only Barack Obama.

Narendra Modi's 31 August 2012 post on Google Hangouts made him the first Indian politician to interact with netizens on live chat.Modi has also been called a fashion-icon for his signature crisply ironed, half-sleeved kurta, as well as for a suit with his name embroidered repeatedly in the pinstripes that he wore during a state visit by US President Barack Obama, which drew public and media attention and criticism.

Modi's personality has been variously described by scholars and biographers as energetic, arrogant, and charismatic.

The nomination of Narendra Modi for the prime ministership drew attention to his reputation as "one of contemporary India's most controversial and divisive politicians."During the 2014 election campaign the BJP projected an image of Modi as a strong, masculine leader, who would be able to take difficult decisions.

Campaigns in which he has participated have focused on Modi as an individual, in a manner unusual for the BJP and RSS.Modi has relied upon his reputation as a politician able to bring about economic growth and "development".Nonetheless, his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots continues to attract criticism and controversy.

Modi's hardline Hindutva philosophy and the policies adopted by his government continue to draw criticism, and have been seen as evidence of a majoritarian and exclusionary social agenda.

As prime minister,Narendra Modi has received consistently high approval ratings; at the end of his first year in office, he received an overall approval rating of 87% in a Pew Research poll, with 68% of people rating him "very favorably" and 93% approving of his government.

His approval rating remained largely consistent at around 74% through his second year in office, according to a nationwide poll conducted by instaVaani.At the end of his second year in office, an updated Pew Research poll showed Modi continued to receive high overall approval ratings of 81%, with 57% of those polled rating him "very favorably.

Political Career

Narendra Modi As Politician

In June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India which lasted until 1977. During this period, known as "The Emergency", many of her political opponents were jailed and opposition groups were banned.

Modi was appointed general secretary of the "Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti", an RSS committee coordinating opposition to the Emergency in Gujarat. Shortly afterwards, the RSS was banned.Modi was forced to go underground in Gujarat and frequently travelled in disguise to avoid arrest. He became involved in printing pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations.

Modi was also involved with creating a network of safe houses for individuals wanted by the government, and in raising funds for political refugees and activists.During this period, Modi wrote a book in Gujarati, Sangharsh Ma Gujarat (In The Struggles of Gujarat), describing events during the Emergency.

Among the people he met in this role was trade unionist and socialist activist George Fernandes, as well as several other national political figures.In his travels during the Emergency, Modi was often forced to move in disguise, once dressing as a monk, and once as a Sikh.

Modi became an RSS sambhag pracharak (regional organiser) in 1978, overseeing RSS activities in the areas of Surat and Vadodara, and in 1979 he went to work for the RSS in Delhi, where he was put to work researching and writing the RSS's version of the history of the Emergency.

He returned to Gujarat a short while later, and was assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985.In 1987 Modi helped organise the BJP's campaign in the Ahmedabad municipal election, which the BJP won comfortably; Modi's planning has been described as the reason for that result by biographers.

After L. K. Advani became president of the BJP in 1986, the RSS decided to place its members in important positions within the BJP; Modi's work during the Ahmedabad election led to his selection for this role, and Narendra Modi was elected organising secretary of the BJP's Gujarat unit later in 1987.

Modi rose within the party and was named a member of the BJP's National Election Committee in 1990, helping organise L. K. Advani's 1990 Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991–92 Ekta Yatra (Journey for Unity).

However, he took a brief break from politics in 1992, instead establishing a school in Ahmedabad; friction with Shankersingh Vaghela, a BJP MP from Gujarat at the time, also played a part in this decision.Modi returned to electoral politics in 1994, partly at the insistence of Advani, and as party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to the BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly elections.

In November of that year Narendra Modi was elected BJP national secretary and transferred to New Delhi, where he assumed responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.The following year, Shankersinh Vaghela, a prominent BJP leader from Gujarat, defected to the Indian National Congress (Congress, INC) after losing his parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections.

Narendra Modi, on the selection committee for the 1998 Assembly elections in Gujarat, favoured supporters of BJP leader Keshubhai Patel over those supporting Vaghela to end factional division in the party. His strategy was credited as key to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 elections,and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary (organisation) in May of that year.

Narendra Modi As CM of Gujarat First Term

In 2001, Keshubhai Patel's health was failing and the BJP lost a few state assembly seats in by-elections. Allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration were made, and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the earthquake in Bhuj in 2001.

The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for the chief ministership, and Modi, who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration, was chosen as a replacement.Although BJP leader L. K. Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government, Narendra Modi declined an offer to be Patel's deputy chief minister, telling Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all".

On 3 October 2001 he replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat, with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the December 2002 elections.On 7 October 2001, Modi was administered the oath of office.

On 24 February 2002 he entered the Gujarat state legislature by winning a by-election to the Rajkot – II constituency, defeating Ashwin Mehta of the INC by 14,728 votes, which enabled him to take office.

Gujarat Riots(2002)

On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers burned near Godhra, killing approximately 60 people.[e] The train carried a large number of Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya after a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid.

In making a public statement after the incident, Modi said that the attack had been terror attack planned by local Muslims.The next day, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for a bandh across the state.Riots began during the bandh, and anti-Muslim violence spread through Gujarat.

The government's decision to move the bodies of the train victims from Godhra to Ahmedabad further inflamed the violence.The state government stated later that 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed.Independent sources put the death toll at over 2000.

Approximately 150,000 people were driven to refugee camps.Numerous women and children were among the victims; the violence included mass rapes and mutilations of women.The government of Gujarat itself is generally considered by scholars to have been complicit in the riots,and has otherwise received heavy criticism for its handling of the situation. Several scholars have described the violence as a pogrom, while others have called it an example of state terrorism.

Summarising academic views on the subject, Martha Nussbaum said: "There is by now a broad consensus that the Gujarat violence was a form of ethnic cleansing, that in many ways it was premeditated, and that it was carried out with the complicity of the state government and officers of the law."

The Modi government imposed a curfew in 26 major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders and called for the army to patrol the streets, but was unable to prevent the violence from escalating.The president of the state unit of the BJP expressed support for the bandh, despite such actions being illegal at the time.

State officials later prevented riot victims from leaving the refugee camps, and the camps were often unable to meet the needs of those living there.Muslim victims of the riots were subject to further discrimination when the state government announced that compensation for Muslim victims would be half of that offered to Hindus, although this decision was later reversed after the issue was taken to court.

During the riots, police officers often did not intervene in situations where they were able.In 2012 Maya Kodnani, a minister in Modi's government from 2007 to 2009, was convicted of participation in the Naroda Patiya massacre during the 2002 riots.

Although Modi's government had announced that it would seek the death penalty for Kodnani on appeal, it reversed its decision in 2013.

Modi's personal involvement in the 2002 events has continued to be debated. During the riots, Modi said that "What is happening is a chain of action and reaction."Later in 2002, Modi said the way in which he had handled the media was his only regret regarding the episode.Modi has not offered an apology for the riots.

In March 2008, the Supreme Court reopened several cases related to the 2002 riots, including that of the Gulbarg Society massacre, and established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the issueIn response to a petition from Zakia Jafri (widow of Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre), in April 2009 the court also asked the SIT to investigate the issue of Modi's complicity in the killings.

The SIT questioned Modi in March 2010; in May, it presented to the court a report finding no evidence against him.In July 2011, the court-appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran submitted his final report to the court. Contrary to the SIT's position, he said that Modi could be prosecuted based on the available evidence.

The Supreme Court gave the matter to the magistrate's court. The SIT examined Ramachandran's report, and in March 2012 submitted its final report, asking for the case to be closed. Zakia Jaffri filed a protest petition in response. In December 2013 the magistrate's court rejected the protest petition, accepting the SIT's finding that there was no evidence against the chief minister.

Narendra Modi As CM of Gujarat Second Term

During Modi's second term the rhetoric of the government shifted from Hindutva to Gujarat's economic development.Modi curtailed the influence of Sangh Parivar organisations such as the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP),entrenched in the state after the decline of Ahmedabad's textile industry,and dropped Gordhan Zadafia (an ally of former Sangh co-worker and VHP state chief Praveen Togadia) from his cabinet.

When the BKS staged a farmers' demonstration Modi ordered their eviction from state-provided houses, and his decision to demolish 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar deepened the rift with the VHP.Sangh organisations were no longer consulted or informed in advance about Modi's administrative decisions.

Nonetheless, Modi retained connections with some Hindu nationalists. Modi wrote a forward to a textbook by Dinanath Batra released in 2014, which stated that ancient India possessed technologies including test-tube babies.

Modi's relationship with Muslims continued to attract criticism. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (who asked Modi for tolerance in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat violence and supported his resignation as chief minister) distanced himself, reaching out to North Indian Muslims before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

After the elections Vajpayee called the violence in Gujarat a reason for the BJP's electoral defeat and said it had been a mistake to leave Modi in office after the riots.

Questions about Modi's relationship with Muslims were also raised by many Western nations during his tenure as chief minister. Modi was barred from entering the United States under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act banning violators of religious freedom,the only person denied a US visa under this provision.

The UK and the European Union refused to admit him because of what they saw as his role in the riots. As Modi rose to prominence in India, the UK and the EU lifted their bans in October 2012 and March 2013, respectively, and after his election as prime minister he was invited to Washington.

During the run-up to the 2007 assembly elections and the 2009 general election, the BJP intensified its rhetoric on terrorism.In July 2006, Modi criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh " for his reluctance to revive anti-terror legislation" such as the 2002 Prevention of Terrorism Act.

He asked the national government to allow states to invoke tougher laws in the wake of the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.In 2007 Modi authored Karmayog, a 101-page booklet discussing manual scavenging. In it, Modi argued that scavenging was a "spiritual experience" for Dalits.

However, this book was not circulated that time because of the election code of conduct.After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Modi held a meeting to discuss the security of Gujarat's 1,600-kilometre (990 mi)-long coastline, resulting in government authorisation of 30 high-speed surveillance boats.

In July 2007 Narendra Modi completed 2,063 consecutive days as chief minister of Gujarat, making him the longest-serving holder of that post, and the BJP won 122 of 182 state-assembly seats in that year's election.

Narendra Modi As PM of India

In September 2013 Modi was named the BJP's candidate for prime minister in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.Several BJP leaders expressed opposition to Modi's candidature,including BJP founding member L. K. Advani, who cited concern with leaders who were "concerned with their personal agendas".Modi played a dominant role in the BJP's election campaign.

Several people who voted for the BJP stated that if Modi had not been the prime-ministerial candidate, they would have voted for another party.The focus on Modi as an individual was unusual for a BJP election campaign.The election was described as a referendum on Narendra Modi.

In September 2014, Narendra Modi introduced the Make in India initiative to encourage foreign companies to manufacture products in India, with the goal of turning the country into a global manufacturing hub.Supporters of economic liberalisation supported the initiative, while critics argued it would allow foreign corporations to capture a greater share of the Indian market.

In order to enable the construction of private industrial corridors, the Modi administration passed a land-reform bill that allowed it to acquire private agricultural land without conducting a social impact assessment, and without the consent of the farmers who owned it.

Under the previous bill, the government had required the consent of 80% of the owners of a piece of property before acquiring it for a private project: this requirement was waived.The bill was passed via an executive order after it faced opposition in parliament, but was eventually allowed to lapse.

Health Policies By Narendra Modi

In his first year as prime minister, Modi reduced the amount of money spent by the government on healthcare.The Modi government launched a "New Health Policy" in January 2015, although this did not increase the government's spending on healthcare, instead emphasizing the role of private healthcare organisations.

This represented a shift away from the policy of the previous Congress government, which had supported programmes to assist public health goals, including reducing child and maternal mortality rates.

The National Health Mission, which included public health programmes targeted at these indices received nearly 25% less funds in 2015 than in the previous year. 15 national health programmes, including those aimed at controlling tobacco use and supporting healthcare for the elderly, were merged with the National Health Mission, and received less funds than in previous years.

Modi initially appointed Harsh Vardhan, a doctor and an advocate of tobacco control, as minister of health. However, Vardhan was removed in November 2015.

The government introduced stricter packaging laws for tobacco which requires 85% of the packet size to be covered by pictorial warnings.In its budget for the second year after it took office, the Modi government reduced healthcare spending by 15%.

Modi has generally emphasised his government's efforts at sanitation as a means of ensuring good health. An article in the medical journal Lancet stated that the country "might have taken a few steps back in public health" under Modi.

On 2 October 2014, Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ("Clean India") campaign. The stated goals of the campaign included eliminating open defecation and manual scavenging.

The plan was to achieve these aims in five years.As part of the programme, the Indian government began constructing millions of toilets in rural areas and encouraging people to use them.

The government also announced plans to build new sewage treatment plants.The administration plans to construct 60 million toilets by 2019. The construction projects have faced allegations of corruption, and have faced severe difficulty in getting people to use the toilets constructed for them.

Awards & Achievments

Narendra Modi was named Best Chief Minister in a 2007 nationwide survey by India Today.

In March 2012, he appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of Time, one of the few Indian politicians to have done so,He was awarded Indian of the Year by CNN-IBN news network in 2014.

In 2014 and 2015, he was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Narendra Modi was also declared winner of the Time magazine reader's poll for Person of the Year in 2014, a feat which he repeated again in 2016.

Forbes Magazine ranked him the 15th-Most-Powerful Person in the World in 2014 and the 9th-Most-Powerful Person in the World in 2015 and 2016.

In 2015, Narendra Modi was one of Time's "30 Most Influential People on the Internet" as the second-most-followed politician on Twitter and Facebook.In the same year he was ranked fifth on Fortune Magazine's first annual list of "World's Greatest Leaders".